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What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

What do you do with your books?

49 replies

matchbox20 · 18/01/2011 18:11

As said above what do you do with the books that you have read?

There are very few books that I keep as soon as I have read them I pass them onto friends and tell them to do the same.

I used to store them until it got out of hand and rarely do I read a book twice.

OP posts:

Buda · 26/01/2011 10:40

I keep them until I get fed up or move house/country and then I get rid but either passing on to friends or giving to charity sales.

Am in process of a big cull now as we are moving back to UK in summer. Have a box ready to go for sale on Friday.

DH keeps all of his. Drives me mad. He will never read them again.

mjovertherainbow · 26/01/2011 10:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

WowOoo · 26/01/2011 10:55

Sell it on www.greenmetropolis.com
you get £3 credit for every book you sell.

If they don't sell after a while I give them to charity shop. Also swap books with my sister as our tastes quite similar.

upahill · 26/01/2011 11:02

I tend to pick up the occasional novel at book swop places and then hand them back.
Most of the books that I buy are ones to be used again and again. I have to built in cupboards in the alcove in the middle room and they are orgainized into themes.

On one row there's my cook books, on another row there is my travel books on another row there's my maps and on another there's resource books such as hobbies, some works stuff. There is also a row dedicated to Calvin and Hobbes!

seaweedhead · 26/01/2011 11:06

If I love them I keep them otherwise they go to the charity shop. I've started to mostly read library books therefore avoiding the desire to hoard.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 26/01/2011 11:18

I wish we had a library. I tend to take them to DHs school and leave them in the staff room. It is where I get most of my books from too.

brimfull · 26/01/2011 11:20

I have too many as used to feel a need to keep like a much loved and cherished toy

I am planning a huge cull to charity ..will have to then do simething with shelves though

ElusiveMoose · 26/01/2011 11:23

upahill we have a Calvin and Hobbes area, too . And cookery (two shelves, actually ), and travel/maps. Are we related?

upahill · 26/01/2011 11:46

at elusivemoose!

I think we should start a 'we heart Calvin and Hobbes' thread!!

Icantbelieveitsnotbitter · 26/01/2011 12:44

We have bookshelves everywhere - we have a huge hallway and bookshelves line both sides of one part of it. All the kids rooms have bookshelves, the toilet has a stack of 'bog books'.

My fiction books are in alphabetical order (mmmm not sure the SAD emoticon is really appropriate but I do realise it's a little bit sad to alphabetise your books but I do love a good trilogy or series and have to have them together!)

Then there are shelves for reference - kids homework, my studies, general knowledge, gardening, few shelves of cookery books.

Then I get a kindle for Xmas!! I've already had a quiver when we went to Asda and I couldn't search through the reduced books as normal !

Butterbur · 26/01/2011 12:50

I never get rid of books, unless they are seriously crap. I must have over a thousand, on book shelves, in the garage, in boxes in the loft.

If I didn't keep them how would I remember what I'd read?

AmazingBouncingFerret · 26/01/2011 12:54

Keep them. In the past ive donated to charity shops but then years later I would remember a snippet of a plot, fancy reading it again and then realise I no longer own it.

I love having books in the house, grew up in a house (and am currently back living in it!) that has literally thousands of books. I counted them one day, I was bored.
Art books, history books, chemistry books (steer clear of those ones though!) medical books, the classics, old map books, mythology, there's so much.

My favourite thing to do when nobody was looking was to read my sisters horror books.

mshayter · 26/01/2011 20:40

I love my books but any that I've not taken to I log with www.bookcrossing.com and send out into the world (usually via a charity shop). You can then track your books to see where they end up. Great if you're into social experiments.

cheekyweebesom · 27/01/2011 22:20

Another bookcrosser here - great way of sharing your books. some of mine have travelled far and wide, great to hear where they end up.

Beamur · 27/01/2011 22:23

I only keep books I have loved reading and think I will read again, otherwise I pass them on or give them to charity.

chixinthestix · 27/01/2011 22:44

The whole of one wall of our living room is bookshelves, and 4 other bookcases in the house and we still don't have room for them all...but I love having a house full of books, they are like old friends. I do occasionally have a cull but thats usually to make room for new arrivals.

Ephiny · 28/01/2011 11:16

I keep most books, unless I really hated them in which case they go to the charity shop. I do very often read books more than once, there are some I can read many times over and never get tired of.

I have been using the library more recently, which helps keep the size of the book collection under control! Also recently got a Kindle.

Ephiny · 28/01/2011 11:16

I grew up in a house full of books as well, so it seems normal to me :)

evenkeel · 28/01/2011 15:16

The slight problem with keeping all your books is when you want to move house. We took 102 boxes of books with us when we last did it - and the collection's grown quite a bit since. So now we can never move again

ladyt178 · 29/01/2011 08:55

I keep most of my books, and consequentially i now have way too many, i weed through them frequently but most of them stay where they are, i do give ones i haven't enjoyed to the local charity shop, after i have offered them around to family and friends, i do reread my books more than once, in fact "the Magician" by Raymond Feist i have read several times and will read again in the future.
my kids follow the same pattern as well, they like to keep their own books to reread, and i know my mom does the same so maybe its a genetic thing :o

Haribojoe · 01/02/2011 13:34

there are some I keep but mostly I put them on readitswapit so I get "new" books cheaply

scottishmummy911 · 01/02/2011 13:51

Keep some I really love (very few) and give the rest away first to friends then charity shops. Far too many to keep!

madamimadam · 01/02/2011 13:54

I keep them. They will have to be prised form my cold, dead fingers.

I hope that, if I tire of them, they can form an additional wing to the house.

If they can build the M6 Toll out of old Barbara Cartland novels, I think I can get a utility room at least out of mine...

Mirage · 01/02/2011 19:55

I kept all mine for years.Then we had 2 dc and no spare room for a library,so I charity shopped loads.We'd got shelves full of books all over the house and boxes under the bed,stacked up in the wardrobes,all over the place.It was a bit of a relief to let them go and if I want to reread one I go to the library.Some I can never give up though.

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